It seems like one of these sort of (opinion) articles pops up every once and a while, and they always cause their share of controversy. This new post on NetTuts.com comparing PHP and Ruby is no different (over 70 comments and counting).

It’s time; queue the "Going the Distance" theme from Rocky. In the red ring: Envato developer extraordinaire, Ryan Allen, who built the original FlashDen with his cold bare hands. In the blue corner: Michael Wales, a well known member in the PHP and CodeIgniter communities. The battle? PHP vs. Ruby. Fight!

The two contenders in this "fight" were asked the same questions and answers from both sides are shared to help balance things out. The questions were things like:

Do you feel that your language is more suited to beginners or advanced users?

Many PHP developers move on to Ruby after a few years. Have you found this to be the case, and, if so, why do you think it’s so common?

Are there instances when you might choose to use Ruby for one project, and PHP for another?

What specifically does your language have that the other does not -- if anything?

How does Ruby or PHP’s community compare to the other?

Be sure to check out the comments - there's lots of good thoughts from the communities on both sides there too.

As the community grows, the EllisLab development team often does not have the time that we would like to interact with the community in various ways, but it’s always been a key part of our success. So as the need arises, we have created this program to help keep the wheels greased so to speak, making sure that our forums, wiki, and bug tracker are handling the needs of the community and are properly moderated.

They have already brought in their first Chieftan, Michael Wales, a staff sergeant in the US Air Force.

This week, our Community Voice author is Michael Wales, a programmer, a father, an aspiring author, and an award winning Airman. For the past 3 years, he's been focusing the majority of his time on CodeIgniter. He is among the most consistent contributors to the community, has released numerous libraries and tutorials, and is one of the most highly sought after freelancers within the community.

Michaeltalks about some of his experiences in developing web applications - both CodeIgniter driven and not. He notes that the framework does allow him to look at things from "outside the box" a bit more since it takes the hard bits off his shoulders.